Definition: Pantheism is the view that God is everything and also every person and also that every person, as well as every little thing, is God. It resembles polytheism (the idea in several gods), yet exceeds polytheism to show that everything is God. A tree is God, a rock is God, an animal is God, the skies is God, the sun is God, you are God, and so on. Pantheism is the supposition behind numerous cults and also false religions (e.g., Hinduism and Buddhism to a level, the different unity and unification cults, and also “mother earth” worshippers).
“Is this Tree of Life a God one could worship? Pray to? Fear? Probably not. But it did make the ivy twine and the sky so blue, so perhaps the song I love tells a truth after all. The Tree of Life is neither perfect nor infinite in space or time, but it is actual, and if it is not Anselm’s “Being greater than which nothing can be conceived,” it is surely a being that is greater than anything any of us will ever conceive of in detail worthy of its detail. Is something sacred? Yes, say I with Nietzsche. I could not pray to it, but I can stand in affirmation of its magnificence. This world is sacred.”
Daniel C. Dennett
Pantheism vs Christianity
Does the Bible preach pantheism? No, it does not. What lots of people confuse as pantheism is the definition of God’s omnipresence. Psalm 139:7 -8 declares, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your existence? If I rise to the paradises, you are there; if I make my bed in the midsts, you exist.” God’s omnipresence indicates He is existing everywhere. There is no area in the cosmos where God is not present. This is not the very same thing as pantheism. God is all over, but He is not whatever. Yes, God is “present” inside a tree and also inside a person, yet that does not make that tree or person God. Pantheism is not at all a scriptural belief, vs Christianity.
The clearest scriptural debates versus pantheism are plenty of commands versus idolatry. The Bible forbids the praise of idols, angels, celestial items, things in nature, etc. If pantheism held true, it would certainly not be wrong to worship such an object, since that item would, as a matter of fact, be God. If it were true, worshipping a rock or an animal would have just as much credibility as venerating God as an unseen as well as soul. The Bible’s clear and constant denunciation of idolatry is a conclusive argument against it.